


One Good Turn

by Cheezey



Series: Chronicles of a Dark Planet [7]
Category: Voltron: Lion Voltron
Genre: Drama, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-08-28
Updated: 2010-08-28
Packaged: 2017-10-11 07:23:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 19,784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/109905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cheezey/pseuds/Cheezey
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Follows on the heels of "In The Name of Duty". Just when Prince Lotor's circumstances look bleakest, a torn Princess Allura offers him a surprising way out, and the unexpected awaits them both.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Part One

In the shadowy corridors of Castle Doom, the witch Haggar walked along with her familiar at her heels toward her laboratory while she pondered her latest plan. The idea was still in its earliest stages of contemplation, but she had not spoken of it to anyone just yet. She preferred to iron out a few more details than she had quite yet before she did that, especially because what she had in mind was a plan she was not entirely sure Zarkon would accept. Her thoughts were disrupted, however, when she heard voices further down the hall. One was robotic, one male and unfamiliar, and the third female and _very_ familiar—although in her opinion, hardly welcome. It was Queen Merla.

A scowl of complete and utter contempt crossed the old crone's features from beneath her dark hood at the sound of the queen's voice. She had not yet and likely never would accept the fact that Merla was now her liege as well as that of the Drule Seventh Kingdom through a marriage to Zarkon. While Haggar was all in favor of the concept of a merged kingdom with the voting clout that went with it—now the second largest in the hierarchy due to its size—and Doom in general having more power, she was most certainly _not_ in favor of it being through Zarkon's marriage to the pink-haired tart, as Haggar thought of her, sitting at his side. While Haggar would likely have resented anyone in the spot she still coveted after so many years, someone like Merla, who had not only been snide and condescending to her in the past but who already had a spotty history where loyalty to Doom's royalty was concerned, had earned the lion's share of the witch's contempt.

Haggar's scowl faded somewhat, replaced by a more neutral look of curiosity as she drew closer to the source of the voices. From down the hall she saw a trio of armed robot soldiers escorting five male slaves whose purpose was obvious. Though the men were of varying races local to the galaxy—humanoid and some with some mixed Drule parentage by the looks of them—each was nicely groomed, well muscled, and scantily clad in clean ornamental slave linens. Merla stood with the one in front, smoothing a perfectly manicured hand across his broad chest and smiling complacently. "I approve," Haggar heard the queen tell the robot. "You may bring them to the private quarters as I instructed earlier."

_Queen for so little time and already she's stocking up a harem in Castle Doom?_ Haggar's yellow eyes glared poisonously through the shadows at Merla. _What nerve, what arrogance, to insult Zarkon in such a way!_ Her bony fingers clenched her staff in anger. _Has she no respect for him at all to flaunt her infidelity so blatantly and soon?_ Though the concept of staying monogamous in one's marriage was not necessarily expected in Drule Empire society and certainly not on Doom—reputed to be one of the more hedonistic planets in the empire—actions that could be interpreted as disloyal or lacking in respect among those in high public profile still raised eyebrows and inspired huffs in certain circles. Haggar generally was not included in that group, as she did not particularly care about gossip unless certain individuals were involved, but Zarkon was at the top of the list of those that did concern her.

As the robots escorted the slaves away, Haggar took a bold stride forward toward Merla. Before she could get a word out however, Merla turned toward her with a saccharine smile on her azure lips. "Well, it's about time you stopped lurking in the shadows like some spying little bat, Haggar. I wondered how long you'd eavesdrop before you had to give your unsolicited opinion."

"Defensive much, Merla?" the witch retorted, both unimpressed and irritated by Merla's attitude.

Merla laughed. "Not at all. It's just that if you're going to spy, you might want to stick to your little crystal ball because you're terrible at it. I didn't even need to be a telepath to pick up on your presence." She straightened and flipped her braid back over her shoulder. "Although implying that I'm insulting Zarkon by keeping a few masseuses around is laughable. Your jealousy is painfully transparent."

Haggar's temper nearly flashed to the surface, but she managed to keep a calm façade. "Jealous of you, Merla? Hardly. But I'd think a newlywed queen would have better breeding than to go cavorting around with a bunch of harem boys—oh I'm sorry, masseuses," she amended cattily, "while the crown for this planet's barely had time to settle on her overstyled pink hair. You don't see Zarkon acting like that."

"I'm not Zarkon; I'm his wife, or do I need to remind you of that?" Merla leaned forward, and stared the older woman's aged face down harshly. "As for Zarkon, let me clue you in on something, my dear. You don't need to worry about Zarkon or his needs. Trust me; I'm taking _good_ care of them." A sneer crossed her lips. "Now be a good little witch and run along and build a robeast, or go turn Cossack into a toad or something useful like that." She accentuated her gesture with a shooing motion of her hand.

"I always put my time to good use… that's why _I'm_ still here after all these years," Haggar replied huffily, and turned to leave imagining the different ways she could turn Merla into a hideous robeast. She already had the personality for it, she thought on a snide note.

"I heard that," Merla called out after her, but Haggar chose to ignore her and shortly she was out of earshot and back at her laboratory.

"Useful," Haggar muttered to herself as she went in, slamming the door behind her, "I'll show her 'useful'… we'll see how 'useful' I am when I get Lotor back here where he belongs to put Little Miss Queenie in her place—right back on Eshai!"

The old witch's muttering was answered by a snort followed by a hearty guffaw of laughter. "Ran into Merla, did ya?" Cossack greeted her from where he stood leaning against one of the pillars of the chamber, idly tossing a couple of her crystals from one hand to the other as a way to amuse himself while he waited.

Not in the mood for Cossack's inanity, she cut him off in a snappish tone. "Brilliant statement of the obvious as usual, Cossack."

He straightened and rolled his eyes at the rude greeting. "Yeesh, what bug crawled up your robe today?"

"A black widow with a pink braid," Haggar retorted as she went over to her bench. Coba hopped up on it beside her while she looked over at Cossack. It was then that she noticed he was apparently practicing juggling with her magical paraphernalia to entertain himself in her absence, and her yellow eyes grew wider with aggravation. "Put those down, you idiot, before you break something or cast a spell that further imperils what few brain cells you have."

Frowning, Cossack set the crystals down. "Well next time be here when you have a robot send me over, and I won't get bored enough to mess with your shiny rocks." He followed her over to her bench. "So what did you want, or did you just call me here to bitch about Merla?"

"I called you here because I need you."

"What for? You got a new robeast for me or something?"

Haggar glanced at the door to her lab and pointed her staff at it. The sound of a heavy lock clicking into place echoed through the chamber a moment later, and she leaned in closer to Cossack. Lowering her voice to just above a whisper, she met his gaze seriously as she began to speak. "Not quite. But I need your help with something I'm planning—the Ancients save me—and I need you to cooperate and most importantly keep quiet about it. Very quiet."

Intrigued, Cossack's eyes brightened. "What's going on? You up to something that's going to piss off Queenie?" He smiled at the thought, but then paused. "You aren't planning to off her are you? I mean, I can understand why you'd want to, but—"

The old witch let out a snort of mild amusement at the notion before shaking her head no. "No, not today," she assured him in a matter-of-fact manner. "Actually this involves Prince Lotor."

"Has something new happened?" Cossack asked with surprise. Last he had heard Lotor was still in custody at Galaxy Garrison headquarters, sentenced to death and awaiting execution. King Zarkon had forbidden both Cossack and Haggar to intervene, and although they did not like or understand his decision to let his only son and heir die by enemy hands with no attempt to rescue him, so far they had abided by it. In Cossack's case that was because he had not received instruction otherwise and had no real idea how they might go about rescuing Lotor anyway, and he figured that if Haggar came up with any bright ideas she would let him know. He was encouraged to learn that she might have gotten such inspiration. As a loyal member of Doom's nobility, head of Zarkon's fleet, and as a friend—at least Cossack liked to think that the prince would call him such—of Lotor's, his situation had not sat well with him from the beginning.

"There hasn't been any news, no," Haggar replied, "but I think I've come up with a way to get him back."

"How?"

"Enough time has passed that I don't think Zarkon is going to do anything on his own to save Lotor. I don't know if it's because he finally got fed up enough with Lotor's failures to wash his hands of him for good, if he expects Lotor to prove himself by getting himself out of there on his own, or if Merla's gotten into his head and convinced him to let Lotor die so she can get some spawn of their union in line for the kingdom's throne."

Cossack made a face. "Oh man, Zarkon didn't knock her up, did he?"

"As far as I know no," Haggar hissed, wincing at the mere thought. "But I wouldn't be surprised if that's her plan. That whole marriage is a political maneuver on both their parts, and you know how the nobility is about heirs."

"Yeah," he agreed with a grumble on a personal note. His own mother had lectured him enough times over the years about settling down and giving her grandchildren that he could only imagine how the pressure was on royalty as opposed to mere planetary nobility like himself. "And if that happened, it wouldn't be great for Prince Lotor, not to mention the rest of us. Queenie's bad enough on her own. I don't want to think about what her kids'd be like." He sighed. "And Lotor's pretty much screwed anyway at this point."

"But we could see to it that Merla's ambitions get screwed instead if we get Lotor back here in one piece. And I think we can do it. I have an idea for breaking him out of Galaxy Garrison, if you can help me."

His eyes lit up with enthusiasm. "Sure. What's your plan?"

"It's simple, simple enough even for you not to screw up. We'll take one of the fleet battleships to Galaxy Garrison headquarters. You wait outside in the ship while I infiltrate the complex and find Lotor. Once I get to him, I'll teleport him back to the ship with my magic, and we fly home."

A blink crossed the commander's otherwise neutral expression as he listened to the plan and waited for further elaboration. When none was forthcoming, he pondered what she had said, and then burst out laughing with the realization that she must have been joking. "Oh, that was a good one Haggar! You really had me going for a minute there!"

Haggar failed to see what was so amusing in her suggestion, and narrowed her eyes impatiently. "What are you laughing at, you idiot? I'm serious."

His hearty laughter at continued for a moment until he composed himself under her intense gaze. "Sure Haggar, whatever!" he replied, still not able to stifle his snickers completely. "You do that. Just take a battleship, fly on over through heavily monitored GA airspace, and park yourself by their biggest complex while you pop on in and pick up their highest profile prisoner without them noticing. You let me know how that works out for you!" He laughed out loud again, shook his head, and started for the door. "I'll be in my office playing Grenade Hunter if you need me."

A zap of energy from the witch's staff flew through the air, narrowly grazing the edge of his helmet and missing his fingers only by inches as he reached for the door handle. "Stay put, Cossack. You're going to get me a ship and fly us in there."

That effectively snuffed out the last of his mirth, and he turned around and gave her a dubious look instead. "Look Haggar, you know I'd be glad to help you, but did you think this whole thing through? Maybe you're not up on the intricacies of military strategy, but you don't just fly over to an enemy base the size of the Garrison complex with one ship for shits and giggles." He paused. "At least not unless you're damn sure your cloaking device isn't going to fail, you've got a fast ship, and you've got no hang-ups about becoming a smear on the nearest asteroid if something goes wrong. And did you forget that Zarkon told us not to do any rescue missions for Lotor?"

"Giving me a ride there and Lotor a ride home isn't doing that much," she retorted, making it clear how trivial she found Zarkon's decree against a Lotor rescue mission to be when it came down to it. "So show some backbone and help me get a ship."

Straightening indignantly, Cossack frowned at the witch and folded his arms across his chest. "I don't think not wanting my ass blown from here to the astral plane on some half-baked suicide rescue mission you pulled out of your pointy little hood against the king's direct orders makes me a coward."

Haggar sighed. "You know, Cossack, sometimes you make me miss working with someone as agreeable as Mogor was. _He _never said no. Even that hardheaded fool Yurak wouldn't have argued with me on something as important as the prince's life."

"Yeah, and you'll notice one key difference between me, Mogor, and dog-face. I'm still _alive_." Cossack turned his head to one side. "Don't get me wrong Haggar, I don't want to give you a hard time and I want Prince Lotor back here as much as you do." He reflected upon the notion of Merla as queen beside King Zarkon with little fish-faced, pink-haired prince and princesslings ruling the planet and ordering him around, and winced. "Maybe more. But you've gotta give me a better strategy than 'fly in and hope the Alliance officers don't spot the big cloaked Doom battleship hanging out while we screw around looking for Lotor,' you know?"

He walked over to one of her stools and sat on it, leaning onto one of her benches on his elbows. "From what I know of the Garrison complex, they've got some heavy firepower. If they spot us or we have to de-cloak for some reason, we gotta withstand that. If we take our fastest ship we won't have the firepower or shielding our biggest battleships have, but if we take one of those we're more likely to get tailed and pursued with attack ships. Until we get back into Drule territory we're not going to be able to call on anyone for backup, and that's enough of a trip that I don't want something that doesn't have top-class speed if we can't bring backup in there with us… which we can't since we're not even supposed to go out on a mission like this."

Cossack paused for a moment and thought a bit more. "We can take one ship out with no problem, but you can bet if I order more than that to leave the bay at once someone's going to ask why and word will get back to Zarkon or Merla. Then you'll have some explaining to do before we even get out of the solar system," he continued, and pointed at her dramatically. "Remember, the reason Zarkon says he doesn't want us going in there is that Commander Hazar's end of the Drule Empire is in some kind of negotiation with the Alliance and we can't cause any 'incidents.' If Zarkon thinks we're going to out to cause one, good luck getting so much as a robeast coffin out without him grounding it or shooting it down."

The old witch waved her hand dismissively. "You know as well as I do that Drule Council ruling holding him back is a load of gladiator beast droppings. Much as he dislikes Keezor, Hazar, and the rest of them he's not worried about anything they're going to do. How ineffective they were at supplanting him back when Lotor tried to take over made it clear how little a threat they really are. No, he's just using them as an excuse not to bother with Lotor." She scowled at the folly of that decision. "But that's beside the point. One ship is all we need anyway. Just get us the one with the best cloaking system and the most speed, and if you need more firepower, I can stash a couple of robeasts on board to mop up any mess. Can you handle that?" Her tone was impatient.

"Yeah, but I still think you've sniffed one too many fumes from your bio chamber," he replied with a measure of hesitation. "Do you at least know where in the complex they're holding Lotor or how long it'll take?"

"I'll be able to use my scrying crystal to pinpoint his location when we get close enough. Once I find him, all I'll have to do is get to him and teleport him out with my magic, since I'm sure their prison is well protected against all known mechanical transporter frequencies. But magic doesn't quite work the same way so they can't block _that_." She was not looking forward to having to teleport two bodies, as that took a lot of concentration and more of her energy than she liked to use at once, but it was far easier than the alternative, which was somehow smuggling Lotor out of the highly guarded complex in secret.

"You shouldn't have to de-cloak the ship if we can get in and out without tripping any alarms," Haggar went on. "If all goes well, all you'll have to do is sit in the command chair and give the flight navigators orders. You should be back in time for dinner with your new wife." A wry smile crossed her cracked lips as she glanced at his arm guard adornment from the recent ceremony. "After all, we wouldn't want Yurak's mommy to ground you for being out too late," she finished with a cackle.

"Oh, take your broomstick and shove it," Cossack shot back as he got back to his feet and headed for the door. She dispelled the magic locking it for the security of their conversation, and he said before departing, "I'll let you know when we're ready to head out."

* * *

The midnight moon shone brightly in the clear Arusian sky and a warm summer breeze wafted upon the air and through the open window into the library of the fortress called the Castle of Lions. Seated inside at a heavy oaken table in the center of the room, Princess Allura was aware of neither as she hunched over a thick book worded in standard legalese that she could barely make heads or tails of. It was not because the princess was stupid, or even that she was uneducated, but because the text was written by lawyers for lawyers, and that sort of wording became confusing quickly. As a result she had spent most of the day in that room, and a good portion of the evening prior, reading through books they had and through media files obtained from the Alliance database looking for an answer—an answer to the question of how she could save the condemned Prince Lotor's life.

Ever since she had returned to Arus from that fateful trial in which Lotor had been sentenced to death, after she had turned him over to them in good faith that he would get a fair trial and sentence that she expected to be imprisonment, she had been wracked with terrible guilt. Although the others had tried to reassure her with their logic and reason that Lotor was being punished for the crimes he had committed against Alliance planets, Allura could not get past the simple truth that he had put himself in the position to be captured because he had saved her life, and she had repaid his kindness—no matter how uncharacteristic a kindness that might be—with a death sentence. Unwitting or not, the gentle princess' conscience could not bear that burden, not when a death penalty was something she had trouble endorsing for someone who had redeeming qualities in his soul, no matter how few or how buried, and especially not when she was the one who had benefited from them.

_I should have kept him here,_ Allura mused with regret once again, subtly shaking her head in frustration and sorrow. She'd had an ominous feeling about turning Lotor over to Space Marshall Graham, a feeling that perhaps there was another way, but the decisions had all been made so quickly, and Coran and the rest of the team had assured her that it was the right choice. After all, the Galaxy Alliance stood for justice and fairness, and it was true that they did not have the means to keep a high profile prisoner like the crowned prince of Doom in the Castle of Lions, which was the most secure building left on Arus. Logically she knew that holding Lotor would only make them more of a target for Zarkon's attacks—if such a thing was even possible at that point, she thought bitterly as she considered the war-torn state of her home planet—but it would also put a permanent strain on their already limited resources by having to keep him under secure armed guard at all times. The Arusians needed every able-bodied person that was willing to resist and fight to withstand Doom's attacks, especially now that Voltron was no longer able to defend them…

Allura sighed again. The loss of Voltron was another big stress on her, and one that she knew she should be more concerned about than Lotor's fate. The blue lion was destroyed, and even after days of examining its wreckage and having the most brilliant experts in the galaxy look over it, none could offer any hope that it could be repaired like they had been able to the previous time it had been put out of commission. It was true that the Voltron made of air, land, and sea team vehicles might be able to help them in a pinch, but the Explorer was rarely stationed anywhere near Arus and they had their hands full as it was so they could not depend on that. Furthermore, Arus was not in the position to make that kind of demand on the Galaxy Alliance. Just because her people had grown comfortable with having Voltron and the lions readily available to defend the planet did not mean that they had the same right to another Voltron when he also had innocents to defend. Besides, she had a feeling the Alliance would deny such a request anyhow. Her public denunciation of their decision regarding Lotor and the demand to have him remanded back to her custody—which they had flatly denied—had certainly not earned her much sympathy from Alliance officials of late.

In all truth she did not want to ask them for much anyway. Perhaps it was childish, and perhaps it was stubborn and irrational, but it was how she felt. The Alliance had let her down when she trusted them to do the right thing, and as a result she no longer had any faith that they would be there for Arus in a time of need unless it somehow suited their agenda. Allura still believed in the principles the Alliance stood for and held no malice toward the other peaceful planets that were a part of it, and that was why she did not have Arus resign from the organization on the spot after what she felt bordered on a betrayal, but she had no faith left at all in the Galaxy Alliance leaders as a whole.

"This is useless," she said with a weary sigh, and slammed the heavy book in front of her shut. "I need to talk to someone I can trust who knows the laws of the Alliance to the letter." Unfortunately the individuals that immediately sprung to mind were either Alliance officials—who she certainly did _not _trust to be honest with her about a legal means of obtaining Lotor's release—or her friends there in the Castle of Lions. As a diplomat Coran was well versed in interplanetary legal protocol, and it was possible that the rest of the Voltron force having served as space explorers for the Alliance might know a way, but her trust in them as far as that situation went was also shaky. She did not believe they would lie to her outright, but she also had trouble believing that they would try very hard to think of a way to free Lotor given how they felt about him.

That left her to come up with something on her own. So far her efforts had proven fruitless, thus the reason for her to be up and about in the middle of the night trying to change it while everyone else was asleep—which she could have used herself at that point, but she was too keyed up to indulge in. For what seemed like the millionth time she replayed the ugly events of Lotor's sentencing over again in her head… hearing him sentenced to death, his defiant words against the judges, her own protests that had turned out to be in vain, and the gasps that had run through the crowd when she had voiced them. No one had expected the demure princess of Arus to erupt in an emotional outburst like she had, to dress down the higher echelons of the Galaxy Alliance in public, and to demand that they return Lotor to her. That moment she first objected it seemed as though time itself had stopped for a brief moment, when all eyes—human, alien, Alliance ally, neutral spectator, even the robotic LADs—had been on her…

It was then that a flash of hope struck her. "The LADs…" she murmured aloud into the darkness, using the acronym of the units known as Legal Advisory Droids.

The LADs were robots built to specialize in the practice, interpretation, and execution of Alliance and interplanetary law. Designed by a tribunal of scientists from various planets in the Galaxy Alliance, the LADs served as legal advisors to all Alliance citizens. They could dispense advice on legal inquiries and produce legal and binding documents, contracts, and certificates. Because they were robots, their programming was neutral and they were not influenced by emotion, only the letter of the law they were programmed with. If her memory served correctly, they were also programmed to be completely discreet and confidential. Their confidentiality code in them was one of their most useful features—once initiated, only the individual seeking counsel or a verified designate could withdraw the information pertaining to the matter being discussed. If the unit was illegally tampered with, it was programmed to self-destruct on the spot to protect that confidentiality.

"I can ask a LAD if there's any legal way to save Lotor—and a LAD won't have any agenda to push or any personal grudges against him." She straightened, her tired body revitalized by renewed hope.

Cheddar, one of the space mice who had been quietly watching Allura from the shadows, tugged at her pink leggings from the floor. She looked down and smiled reassuringly at her rodent friend. "Don't worry. I'm fine. Better than I've been in days if this works out the way I hope it does."

The mouse squeaked back unconvinced, and looked up at her with concern.

"No, I will," she said with firm resolve, and stood.

Cheddar's eyes went wide and he gestured wildly with two more squeaks.

Allura picked him up and set him down on the table, and gave him a gentle pat on the head before releasing him. "I'm going to go to the Garrison complex and talk to a LAD to find out my options. I'll take Black Lion since Blue isn't fixed and Black is the only other one I've had experience flying in—and if anyone needs me before I get back, you can tell them where I went. But please don't tell them yet."

Cheddar frowned and twittered uncertainly.

"Of course you can tell your family… and if something urgent comes up of course you can tell the others," she assured the mouse, "but I just don't think they'll understand. Not like you do. You know I don't—I _can't_ live with what they did to Lotor. I know he's evil, and I know he'd just as soon take over this world as look at it…" She looked out the window at the Arusian night sky wistfully, "but he doesn't deserve to die. There's good in him; I know it. If we killed him…"

She felt Cheddar's paw pat her finger, and she smiled down at him. "Thanks for understanding, Cheddar. You're a true friend. I knew I could count on you." She leaned down and kissed him on the head, and then ran for the black lion as fast as she could.


	2. Part Two

As he sat motionless on the thin mattress upon the cot in his cell, Lotor mused that no matter how "humane" the Galaxy Alliance prison was compared to the festering stone dungeons on Doom, imprisonment was still a miserable situation. Strange as it was, he would have felt more at home—and at ease—in one of his father's dark hell-holes than he did in the Garrison complex. At least on Doom they made no pretense about being noble and good when they held someone they intended to kill. Suffering the sanctimonious and self-righteous attitude that seemed to pervade the very air of the Alliance base was to him almost worse than the sentence that hung over him like a foul cloud.

That was, if the incredible boredom did not kill him first. Because he was such a high profile, high security prisoner, Lotor was not included in the general prison population expected to do heavy labor to make productive use of the time they held him captive. Instead he had to sit in his cell staring at the walls all day with only conversation with the guards that stopped by as a source of entertainment. The guards, of course, were Galaxy Alliance officers and for the most part took pleasure in belittling him and making his life miserable simply because they could. He was not surprised; it was not every day that an inferior worm—most often a human—had the chance to feel superior to someone of Drule descent, and royal blood at that. Lotor took solace in the fact that guarding an enemy prince of his station was probably the most important thing that the majority of the insignificants that kept tabs on him would ever do.

Over the past several days he had almost learned the guards' schedule by heart, therefore when one came in at what seemed like less than an hour after the prior guard change, he knew something out of the norm was happening. He turned toward the cell door and stared as two armed escorts appeared and unlocked it. "'Afternoon, Princey," one of them, a tall and skinny human, sneered. "You got lucky today. You got a visitor."

Lotor blinked in surprise, for he had not expected that. If he had a visitor, and it was someone who would use legal channels to get into the Alliance's barracks, then it had to be…

_Allura,_ he thought, barely able to conceal his smile. _She came to see me again._

_She came to see you, but does she care enough to save you?_ A nagging voice, one reminiscent in a very unpleasant way of doubters such as his father and Merla, spoke up inside him.

_She came because she loves me,_ his thoughts—his hopes—argued back.

Lotor stared down the guards with a surprising amount of authority considering his circumstance and demanded, "Who is it?"

The other guard stepped into the cell with a heavy duty pair of handcuffs while his companion kept a rifle pointed precisely at Lotor's head, ready to kill him in an instant if he tried anything. "Some lady," he answered with a shrug as if it was completely unimportant while he slapped the cuffs roughly on the captive prince. "Not that you deserve any visitors, lowly slime that you are." Once the restraints were fastened, he gave Lotor a hard shove to the back. "Probably the mother of someone you killed in one of your attacks."

"Maybe we'll be lucky and she'll be an assassin," the first guard remarked snidely. "I know I'd look the other way if someone tried to take you out. I'd do it myself for what you did to my world if I didn't pride myself on being above your type."

Lotor sneered, thoroughly unimpressed at the posturing of armed men taunting a bound prisoner, even if that was the only way they could give him a fair fight. "The best Alliance soldier is little more than a bug to be squashed upon the shoe of any Doomite or Drule. Fools like you serve only two purposes—free labor and robeast food."

The other soldier hit him hard with the butt end of his rifle. "Shut up and walk! And keep your mouth shut if you know what's good for you."

"What will you do if I don't? Shoot me?" he retorted arrogantly.

"Not for a few more weeks," the first soldier snapped, and kicked him hard in the shin. "Until then, you're our slave."

"You should know all about how a slave is treated, Princey. You took enough of them from my planet before Voltron freed it, and I want to make sure you suffer for every damn one of them."

Lotor growled as he felt the man's boot connect with his lower back, and he shuffled to keep his balance with his hands bound. "Which planet was it? If you're going to be a cowardly cur and hit me in the back in its name, I'd like to know what world you're so spinelessly avenging."

The soldier's response was to cock his rifle and put it to back of the prince's head. "Pollux," he hissed with unbridled contempt while his partner looked at him with a bit of alarm. "I'm from Pollux."

A cruel sneer crept across Lotor's features as he felt the barrel press roughly through his white hair against his scalp. "Oh, Pollux. Do give Princess Romelle my regards, then. As I'm sure you heard, she and I were very intimate…"

"Don't you speak her name!" he raged, his hand twitching on the trigger.

"Draex, don't!" the other soldier said, and pushed the rifle out of the way before any harm was done. "It'll be done soon enough. Don't let him have the satisfaction of ruining your life like he ruined so many others."

Lotor's cold smile only hardened at the humans' exchange. "Pathetic. I knew you didn't have the stomach for it. That's why you'll never be able to defeat my father's empire. One of us would have killed a prisoner like me by now."

"Don't mistake common sense for mercy," the intervening soldier snapped. "And don't think for a second that if you resisted we wouldn't—"

"Oh, I know you would. That's one thing you humans are good for. Like the trained monkeys you're evolved from, you follow orders quite well. That's why you make such excellent servants."

A look of intense hatred crossed both of their faces, and the one who had been arguing with him retorted, "Just move."

"Very well," Lotor said condescendingly. "I wouldn't want to keep my guest waiting." The remainder of the walk passed in silence while Lotor thought about Allura, about what she might be there to say or do, and how delightful it would be to see her lovely face after days of misery in the Alliance prison. It therefore came as quite a shock to him when the guards sat him down on a chair in front of a thick plastic window facing into an identical room with only a hand-sized slot and some air holes for contact and sound, and he saw not Allura there but…

"Merla!" he gasped, his yellow eyes wide with surprise.

The pink-haired queen smiled as he approached. "Nice to see you too, Lotor."

Recalling her last words to him, a telepathic taunt at his sentencing, his features tightened into a dubious glare as he settled in his seat. "Why are you here, Merla?"

She pouted. "Now is that any way to greet an old friend?"

_If you're so friendly, then get me out of here,_ Lotor thought sullenly, but with a verbal reply of, "I wasn't expecting you."

_Get you out of here?_ Merla's voice sounded in his mind. _Now why would I want to do that? I saved you once already and look at the good it did me. You know the saying—fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me._ "Who were you expecting? Princess Allura, perhaps?"

_She'll save me if you won't_, Lotor projected back with some bitterness. _Though I'd expect someone who was embracing the virtues of goodness these days would want to help an old friend._

Merla chose to address both points verbally. "Ah, you were expecting Allura. And you're right—she is more the type to show up and try to bail you out some way. I on the other hand, much like your father, am not sure it would be worth it."

"And you said you hated my father and everything he stands for."

"Ah yes, that was a little melodramatic of me, wasn't it? But you know how it is when you care about someone… it leads you to do irrational things for them." She gave him a pointed look. "But I'm feeling much better now."

"So is that why you're here, Merla? To gloat?" He sneered at her. "Some reformation of character."

Merla's eyes narrowed. "You're a fine one to make character judgments. And to answer your question—yes, I suppose so. I came here to see if even the face of certain death could humble you." _And I might've been inclined to pull a few strings if you demeaned yourself properly to me_, she added telepathically.

_I'd sooner take my chances with the firing squad than beg for anything from you, _Lotor thought back angrily. _If you hate me because of what happened on the asteroid then so be it, but I won't give you the satisfaction of humiliating myself any more than I'll give it to them._

Rising to her feet in light of that mentally loud but verbally silent answer, she gave him a long look. "Prideful to the end, hmm? Well I'm sure Zarkon will at least be proud of you in death even if he had little of it in what you did with your life." She shook her head, the end of her pink braid swaying slightly with her motion. "For what it's worth, I am sorry it had to turn out this way. I never did want to see you dead, Lotor. I'd hoped better for you. Had things worked out differently, I could've saved you, you know."

"How? A 'good' Alliance-friendly Drule Kingdom queen can't very well turn against her new friends by bringing an envoy of ships here to free me by force, now can she?" he said sarcastically. His belief in Merla's so-called reformation ran about as deep as Castle Doom's nonexistent moat.

If she was affected by Lotor's attitude, she did not show it, rather her lips tugged subtly toward a smile. "Of course not. Much like our esteemed First Kingdom associate Commander Hazar, I would like nothing more than to see peace between the Drule Empire and Galaxy Alliance. Actually I was referring to one of the older Alliance laws on the books—that planetary rulers in good standing with them can demand a reprieve and sanctuary for their family members under certain conditions. How unfortunate that Zarkon agreed to annul our marriage… had you still been my husband, I could've brought you out of here with no trouble at all."

Lotor regarded her arrogantly. "Marry me now then."

At that she let out a hearty laugh. "My, how romantic! But no, I'm afraid I'll have to turn down your charming proposal." She flashed one of her delicate hands in front of the window, which now sported a beautiful bejeweled ring of gold and platinum interwoven around several precious gemstones that Lotor recognized immediately as a marriage adornment. "I've already found my 'Prince Charming.' It's a real shame, Lotor. We could've been something, couldn't we?"

His shock temporarily overrode his urge to be snide. "Who did you marry?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" she responded mysteriously, and then turned and left without another word.

Scowling in aggravation, Lotor also rose to his feet and glared at the guards who had brought him there. "Take me back to my cell."

* * *

Princess Allura's arrival at Galaxy Garrison headquarters in the black lion happened with little fanfare. If her outburst at Lotor's trial had lost her any favor amongst the officials of the organization, it was not reflected in the way she was treated when she gave her name to the security guard at the door. She was admitted to the non-restricted areas of the complex with no question, and the sentries on duty pleasantly directed her to the corridor in which the public access LADs were located.

After selecting an available unit, they went to a private chamber to discuss her situation. Allura sat down in one of the chairs and folded her hands upon the table, trying to think of the best way to explain what she wanted to do. The LAD kept its ocular units fixed upon her as she gathered her thoughts.

"I—I need to know if there's any way to stop the Alliance from killing Lotor," she said bluntly, finding no pleasant way to explain it. "Can his death sentence be overturned?"

"If the prisoner you are referring to is Lotor, crown prince of Doom, first son of King Zarkon and the deceased Queen Altora of royal house Dar'skel'Ayr of the Ninth Kingdom of the Drule Empire sentenced in Case 423923-XM-01, the verdict and sentencing are final. As a prisoner of war and not a citizen of a Galaxy Alliance world, he is entitled only to trial. Appellate rights are reserved for Galaxy Alliance citizens."

Allura's eyes widened. "What? He can't appeal? But that's not fair!"

"That is the law," the LAD replied impassively in its mechanical voice.

"What about me? I turned him in. I'm the princess of Arus—don't I have any rights?"

The LAD's eyes flashed. "Princess Allura, you have the full rights and privileges granted any citizen and governing authority of a world in good standing within the Galaxy Alliance."

"Then why can't I free Lotor?" she pressed. "I know I turned him over to Space Marshall Graham and signed something that gave them the authority to try and sentence him, but I can't do anything else? Nothing at all? Can't I put in an appeal on his behalf or something like that?"

"You do not have the legal authority to request an appeal for anyone but a citizen of planet Arus."

She was struck with sudden inspiration. "What if I declared him a citizen of Arus? I can do that as a princess."

"The prince was a citizen of Doom at the time of trial and is therefore subject to the regulations applied to an individual of that status for the entire process. Only a trial initiated after citizenship is established and documented would grant him the rights of an Arusian citizen."

She frowned. "Is there any way I can reclaim him? To nullify what I signed turning him over, or to overturn that? Something I could file to request that I get him back?"

"The custody discharge is legally binding, Princess Allura. It can not be invalidated without full consent of each party on the original document."

Allura's hopes fell further. There was no way Space Marshall Graham would agree to that; she knew that without even bothering to ask. "Is there any other way Lotor could be freed or pardoned?"

The LAD was silent for a moment as it processed the request, and then it presented its answer. "The council that passed sentence on the prisoner has the sole authority to grant a pardon. A request can be filed with them prior to the execution of sentence."

"More paperwork!" Allura exclaimed in frustration. "That's all? That's the only way to free Lotor?"

"If the prince has a family member in the governing body of a world in good standing with the Galaxy Alliance, they have the authority to intervene and reclaim him to their world as specified in Code 630; Section B, provided they agree to adhere to the conditions specified therein."

"But he's from Doom, and they're from the Drule Empire," she said with a sigh, before remembering that there were a few Drules who were on good terms with the Galaxy Alliance. "What about Commander Hazar? Is he related to him, or any of the Drules we're in negotiations with?"

"Negotiations do not qualify as good standing, as their worlds are not registered in the Alliance. Legally there is no obligation to honor such a request. It would be at the discretion of the council passing sentence."

Allura frowned. Everything kept coming back to the council that sentenced Lotor, and she had already been down that road. "Is there anyone in the Alliance that could free him with that code?" Perhaps if Lotor had a relative somewhere she could convince them where she had failed in convincing Space Marshall Graham and the others…

The LAD's eyes flashed again while it searched its memory banks. "There are no qualified candidates for Code 630; Section B for the defendant of Case 423923-XM-01. Regulations stipulate the familial relation must be within two generations or lines."

"Then there really is nothing I can do…" Allura's voice trailed off sadly.

"Unless you can present someone with a documented qualified familial relation not currently in the database, Code 630; Section B is inapplicable."

"Documented? You mean if I find someone, they have to have some kind of proof?" _I wonder if Merla could help him, _Allura mused_. She could have her world join the Alliance…_

"Legal documentation of their status on a qualifying world, and either DNA or legally certified evidence of the relation in the cases of non-genetic relationships such as marriages and adoptions," the LAD explained.

It was then that the perfect answer struck Allura in all of its irony—marriage. She _did_ have the power to save Lotor after all. She only had to marry him, legally bind herself and by corollary, her world, to him to do it. _To save the man who tried to save my life while taking over my world, I'd have to give myself and my world to him to do it._

"I don't believe it…"

The LAD clicked inquisitively at the princess. "I do not understand the request, Princess Allura."

"I—I need some time to think," she said softly as she rose to her feet. "Please wait here, and keep what we discussed confidential."

The droid's response came automatically as she drifted off into even troubled and torn thought. "Yes, Princess Allura."

* * *

On a ship drawing closer and closer to the Galaxy Garrison complex, Cossack glanced over at the old witch that had brought him on the impromptu mission into enemy airspace. She had her hands spread wide over her scrying crystal and stared intensely into it, presumably trying to divine the whereabouts of their captive prince.

"You find him yet, or are you spying on the naked men in the prison showers?" the commander quipped from his chair.

Haggar's hooded head whipped up and cast an unamused glare in his direction. "He seems to be in transit. They have him in a hallway with a couple of armed guards. I thought they'd have him in solitary confinement."

"So just disguise yourself as a guard or something, blip in, pay him a visit, and blip out. That was your plan anyway, right?"

The old witch let out an irritated sigh. "Cossack, let me explain something to you. Teleporting is not just a matter of 'blipping' as you call it. It requires heavy concentration. Moving two bodies back will require even more energy. That means I can't waste a lot of time blasting guards out of my way or changing illusions too much. I'm powerful, but I don't want to attract the attention of every soldier and guard in the complex. I was hoping to find Lotor alone for that reason. I want to get in and out without being noticed."

Cossack double-checked that the cloaking device on their ship was engaged as they drew within detection range of the Galaxy Alliance base. They had been traveling invisibly ever since crossing into Alliance airspace, but now that they were within spitting distance of the fortress, he did not want to take any chances. "We got plenty of fuel. We'll just hang back here until it's safe for you to go in." He looked over at the robots manning the console and told them to run a silent surveillance scan, which was to intercept any passing signals without projecting any of their own.

Haggar nodded, but kept her eyes on the crystal, while a robot looked up from the console and turned toward Cossack. "Commander, the survey scans indicate a familiar pattern."

"Yeah well, we've dealt with GA ships before, I'm not surprised they're familiar," he retorted sarcastically as he put his feet up on the console, waiting for Haggar to do something, his part of her little rescue mission mostly done.

"No, Commander, one has the energy signature of a Voltron lion."

His feet were back on the floor in a flash. "You have to be shitting me."

Haggar also frowned, and waved her hand over her crystal to change what she was looking for while the robot keyed its findings up on the main view screen.

"Black Lion," both Haggar and Cossack said simultaneously, and exchanged looks.

"The Voltron force is there?" Cossack asked, while Haggar brought the image of Allura in conversation with the LAD into focus on her crystal.

"No, just Princess Allura," she muttered with a touch of disgust before straightening and stepping away from her crystal. Raising her staff, she murmured an incantation and suddenly her appearance changed from that of Haggar the witch to a Galaxy Alliance soldier in uniform, complete with a gun, which happened to be her staff under illusion. With a surprisingly masculine voice, the disguised witch looked at Cossack and said before disappearing, "You might have to put in some overtime on this after all."

* * *

While Haggar "blipped" out of the battleship and into the Galaxy Garrison complex, back on Arus dawn was breaking over the planet while alarms blared throughout the Castle of Lions. Flashing lights and annoying klaxons jolted the Voltron force members out of their sleep, and half awake and panicked the four young men ran to the control room still in their pajamas.

"What's going on?" Keith demanded of Coran, who stood at the console looking rather distressed.

Right on his heels, a sleepy Hunk skidded to a stop. "Is Zarkon attacking?"

"Coran! Where's the fire?" asked Lance, while Pidge joined his friends and eyed the castle keeper expectantly for an answer. The green lion pilot briefly glanced over his shoulder and wondered where the princess was.

"The black lion is gone," Coran informed them in a somber tone.

"What?" the male Voltron force members exclaimed in unison. They exchanged looks, and it suddenly dawned on them that Allura had not shown up.

"The princess—" Keith began.

Lance looked at the corridor through which they entered. "Yeah, where is she?"

"I hope she's all right," Hunk said, a worried note creeping into his voice before he punched one hand into his other. "If one of those Doom creeps has hurt her—"

"I have no reason yet to believe that she's been abducted, nor that the lion was stolen per se," the royal diplomat stated in a serious, but not quite panicking tone. "But I wanted you all alerted and brought here immediately so that you could tell me if you knew anything. Did she say anything at all about leaving and taking the black lion with her? Discuss any plans?"

The Voltron force members shook their heads to indicate that she had not, while a frown crept across Keith's face. Though he was worried about Allura, he also knew that it was not the first time the princess had taken the black lion for an impromptu fly, although he liked to believe that after how the last incident had turned out she would not do that again without very good reason. "She didn't say anything to me."

"Me neither," Lance said with a shrug.

Hunk glanced at the monitor. "Did you try contacting the lion?"

Coran nodded. "No answer." He turned and faced the console. "I wanted to ask you all before I contacted Galaxy Garrison and other planets in the system to see if they've either seen or heard from her."

It was then that Pidge noticed the family of space mice huddled inconspicuously near the wall on the west side of the room. "Actually," he said, and looked deliberately in their direction, "before you get on the horn to them, maybe you ought to ask _everyone_ in the castle."

"I didn't think Nanny's fat butt was up yet," Lance quipped with unfortunate timing—for the governess had also heard the alarms and had just arrived in the doorway.

"Rude young man!" she exclaimed, and waved her hand angrily in Lance's direction. "For your information, Nanny and her backside were both up in the kitchen helping to cook breakfast for the bunch of ill-mannered, disrespectful young pilots that wouldn't know politeness if it bit them on their own!" She let out a second disapproving huff. "And for the love of Arus, hike up your pants! A proper young man doesn't show off his either, especially when he can't even put on a robe first in proper company!" She then looked to Coran. "Now where is my baby?"

The red lion pilot could not help but get in one last retort before Coran could answer. "Sorry lady, I didn't have time to dress up before checking to see if the castle was about to get blown sky high."

"Enough!" Keith interjected forcefully, before turning to the mice that Pidge pointed out before Nanny's arrival. "What about it, guys? _Have_ you seen her?"

The mice exchanged uncertain looks while Pidge pressed them. "Yeah, she tells you guys everything! You must at least know when she left or if she was the one who took the black lion."

Two of the mice squeaked back and forth, as if arguing in mouse-speak, until Cheddar hesitantly stepped forward. "You know where she is?" Pidge asked.

Cheddar nodded, but his posture was visibly anxious.

"Is she safe?" Hunk asked.

The mouse nodded again.

"She took the black lion with her?"

Cheddar answered Pidge's question with another nod.

"Where did she go?" Keith asked, trying to force himself not to feel ridiculous for asking something so serious of a rodent. He knew Allura and Pidge found the mice to be great conversationalists, and even he could admit that they were fun at times, but he still felt silly talking to them.

Cheddar looked to his companions and there were a few more squeaks back and forth before the mouse let out a heavy sigh and squeaked, gesturing heavily as he did so, to Pidge. The green lion pilot's eyes went wide. "Oh!" he said with a measure of relief. "Well at least that's not an emergency."

"Since not all of us are fluent in mouse-mouth, can you translate?" Lance asked the younger pilot with a bit of sarcasm.

"Cheddar said she was feeling bad about what happened to Lotor, and went to Galaxy Garrison to check on the laws to see if there's any legal way to stop them from executing him."

A collective sigh of relief went through the room, followed by grunts and additional sighs of resignation, that-figures, and irritation. "All that worry for that scoundrel, oh my impulsive little baby," Nanny muttered with a shake of her head. "Why can't she get it through her pretty head that he's not worth it?"

"She certainly had no right to run off in the lion without telling anyone," Coran said with evident disapproval in his tone.

Cheddar squeaked up again, that time somewhat indignantly. Pidge nodded and conveyed the message. "Cheddar just said that Allura figured you wouldn't understand and that was why she left without saying anything."

"We understand just fine, but that doesn't make it any less irresponsible!" Keith pointed out irritably. "What if Zarkon _had_ attacked?"

The mouse let out another squeak. "That's why he spoke up," Pidge translated.

"I'm more worried that she's going to see that jerk and he's going to upset her again and make her think she did something bad by making him account for all the no-good things he's done over the years," Hunk grumbled. "Wish we could get her to understand that the Galaxy Alliance wouldn't sentence him to a firing squad if he hadn't earned it!"

There was another series of squeaks, and Pidge sighed and looked at the mice. "Yeah, I know," he told them. "But I don't want to argue about it."

"And I don't believe we _are_ arguing with a mouse about it," Lance said with a bemused shake of his head.

"We aren't anymore," Keith said decisively, and nodded to the mice. "Thanks for the information, Cheddar." He turned to Coran. "If she's at the Galaxy Garrison complex, we should go there and make sure she's all right. Even if Lotor can't physically harm her behind bars, he's likely to do a number on her through manipulation, and I don't want to see _that_."

Hunk glanced in the direction of the chutes to their lions. "I'm all right with that, but we still only have 3 lions. Who gets to double up?" He frowned slightly as he imagined squishing two people into the cramped quarters of the lion cockpit.

The four men exchanged looks for a few moments until all their gazes settled on Pidge. "Aw, c'mon!" the green lion pilot protested. "That's not fair! You're just picking on me because I'm short."

Lance grinned. "Height has its privileges!"

Keith also smiled. "Besides, I've flown the green lion before. Remember the first time we took them out against a robeast, back when the black lion's key was still missing?"

"Maybe we could stuff you into the mouse plane and let you fly that," Hunk teased him good-naturedly.

Pidge pouted and played along as they made their way to the chutes. "Oh fine. Even a short skinny guy like me probably couldn't fit in next to your fat gut!"

"Better a fat gut than a fat butt," he said, and glanced at Nanny, which caused each of them to snicker, except the stoic Keith, who only cracked a slight smile.

While Nanny narrowed her eyes at the near-insult, Lance helped to ensure that it fulfilled its destiny to become a real one. "Here's looking at you, Nanny!" he cracked jovially before hopping into the chute. A look of outrage flashed across the staunch governess' features, and the Voltron Force could still hear her exasperated voice echoing through the tunnel about what a disgrace they were almost the entire way down to the lions.


	3. Part Three

Haggar had chosen her teleportation coordinates carefully. Even though she was disguised it was necessary for her to appear out of sight of any eyes that would question why a uniformed Galaxy Alliance officer would simply appear out of thin air. Her magic had shown her a small empty room with no life forms in it as an ideal destination; however she had not realized that it was a janitorial closet and that she would materialize with one foot in a bucket and the blunt handle of a large sweeping mop poking uncomfortably into the back of her pants. Grumbling to herself, she muttered, "I am _so_ glad Cossack isn't here to see this." She knew the commander would never let the indignity of her getting a broom-wedgie go, both because of the obvious witch and broom jokes and because he could never let an opportunity for childish humor pass.

Wasting no time she made her way out into the hallway toward where she had last seen Lotor in her crystal. A minute or two later, just as she predicted, the two guards escorting him back to his cell rounded the corner and crossed her path. None of them reacted in any way to her presence, assuring her that her disguise was working as intended, until she approached them.

"Are you the unit transporting the prisoner Prince Lotor?" she asked in her disguise's masculine tone.

Lotor gave her a look as if he thought her to be an idiotic worm and an annoyance, which was about how she expected Lotor would look at an Alliance soldier. Her own opinion of them was not much different than his. She glanced at him for a moment and was pleased to see that Doom's prince was still in good health and obstinate spirit considering his circumstance. She then turned to the senior of the two guards. "I have orders to relieve you of duty and take over."

He blinked in surprise. "You do? Why? My shift just started an hour or so ago."

Haggar shrugged. "Guess they have something else for you to do. All they told me was to come down here and relieve you. They assigned me to the prince for the afternoon."

"Maybe you got on someone's bad side," the other guard, the Polluxian called Draex, muttered with obvious distaste. "I could think of duty I'd rather have than guarding this slime."

"It's the most prestige you'll ever have," Lotor sneered contemptuously.

The other soldier frowned, but did not suspect anything amiss other than poor communication, which was nothing new to him, especially when stationed in the Garrison complex, which when not under attack operated a lot more like an office complex than a battle fortress with all of the legal and judicial offices in it. "All right, if you say so," he conceded. "You been assigned to him or the top security ward yet?"

The disguised Haggar shook her head no, and the guard turned to Draex. "You can show him where he needs to go then, while I go check and see what's going on downstairs."

Draex nodded as he left and Haggar took the opposite side of Lotor. "So, you new around here? I don't think I've seen you. What's your name?"

"Hag—rid," she said, stumbling a bit to come up with an alias on the spot like that. She let out a light cough to cover the stutter. "Dry air in this complex."

"Hagrid, huh?" he replied in a friendly tone. "I used to know a guy by that name. Big guy," he said, gesturing with the arm that did not hold the gun. "You'd swear he was half giant."

Haggar only had the chance to nod politely when Draex's communicator buzzed. He answered, and then held up a hand indicating to stop. Lotor let out a bored and irritable sigh while Haggar played her part as guard and held the chained Lotor as expected. Although they were alone in the corridor and theoretically they could take Draex if need be, she did not want to teleport until they were alone unless she had no other choice. The spell required heavy concentration to cast, and she did not want a witness to run and alert security that there was a breach before Cossack even had a chance to gun their escape ship out of orbit.

"Man, you aren't gonna believe this," Draex said. "Princey here has _another_ visitor."

"Oh?" Haggar's tone was annoyed, although not for the reason her alter ego should have been.

"Yeah." He pointed his thumb to the direction from which they had come. "Back to the visitor's area."

That bit of news caught Lotor's interest. "Who is it?"

"Hell if I know, or care," Draex snapped at him, and grabbed his chained arm. "Just shut up and move it."

"Yes, get moving," Haggar added, both to be in character and out of a genuine desire to get on with things. Though she too was curious about the identity of Lotor's guest and wondered if it was the same individual who had shown up in the black lion, she would have preferred to get out of there and get him back to Doom where he belonged.

"Whoever it is, I'm sure they'll be more interesting company than you two peons," Lotor grumbled.

After a few more tense minutes and insults traded between Lotor and the real alliance guard, they reached the room in which Lotor had met with Merla just a short while ago. Instead of Merla, however, Haggar's prediction was right and much to the prince's delight that time his visitor was the one who he wanted to see most of all.

"Allura!" Lotor exclaimed in a mixture of surprise and delight. His face beamed at the sight of his beloved, and the cold arrogance that had been in his eyes was temporarily erased, and instead sparkled with all the joy of a young child being given the toy that he had most wanted for his birthday. The sneer upon his blue lips melted into a genuine smile, and his stiff and obstinate posture gave way to barely contained raw energy as he struggled to get to the seat faster than his chains and escorts would allow him.

Draex bit back the snide remark that leapt to mind, more out of respect to the presence of a princess than anything else, while Haggar took in the scene with renewed interest. She was not surprised that Allura had come to see Lotor, but she did not know exactly why she was there—whether it was because she had found some way to help him or if it was simply to weep that she was sorry for what had happened and to ease her conscience. Though the witch knew the longer she dallied in the complex in her disguise the more likely it was that she would be discovered, her instincts told her to wait until Lotor was done speaking with Allura. Besides, knowing him and what a fool he was for the girl, even if she saved his life he would probably be cranky if she denied him a chance to speak with her.

Unaware as to the presence of the witch and unconcerned about the presence of the guards in the room, Allura focused solely on Lotor and regarded him with a pleasant, if not somewhat sad look upon her features. In Lotor's eyes she was no less beautiful than ever, but Haggar was more interested in what her motivations for being there were, especially when she noticed a LAD silently stationed behind her. "Hello Lotor," Arus' princess greeted the captive prince of Doom in a gentle tone.

"Allura, my love," Lotor greeted her with unashamed affection and an underlying measure of complacency. "You came to me, just like I knew you would."

"I'm so sorry, Lotor," she told him honestly, still uncomfortable with his declarations of love and the way they made her emotions churn in close quarters with him. It was far easier to brush him off as a heartless monster spouting meaningless words when they came out in the heat of a battle or when he was hurting her friends than it was when they were away from that, face to face and eye to eye, with the reminder of what he had done for her with no benefit and great harm to him. Trying to ignore that unwelcome surge of feeling, Allura met his gaze and tried to focus on the matter at hand, all feelings aside. "I hate what they did to you," she went on to say. "If I'd had any idea they would do this, I would never—"

"I know," he cut her off, his yellow slitted eyes intent upon her. "I was there when you spoke out for me in the courtroom, remember? I heard you denounce their farce and their betrayal of your intentions. I know _you_, my beautiful and gentle Allura, would never see them do to me what they intend." He reached to touch her hand through the small opening in the glass, but she was out of reach and hesitated to move closer. Part of her wanted to, but…

_He'll expect more than a touch if you go through with what you're thinking,_ an inner voice pointed out to her.

"Despite where I am and what's happened," Lotor went on, dismayed that he could not touch the soft skin that invited him so, "it makes me happy to finally know that you do love me, even if you can't bring yourself to say it yet."

From where she stood watching, Haggar found herself less impatient and aggravated with the delay and more interested in the interplay between her prince and the Arusian princess. She knew Lotor's feelings for the girl were real, that much was obvious after all that had transpired, but was it possible that she actually returned them? She knew from her experience with the princess and the black lion pilot in the dream dimension some time prior that he too had feelings for her and it had seemed to Haggar then that Allura returned those as well. Could Allura be attracted to both, Haggar wondered, truly torn between a common good-boy pilot and an enemy prince? The old witch wondered, and watched Allura's every movement carefully. Obviously the black lion pilot was more her ideal match, but women often felt an irresistible draw and attraction to bad men. Oh yes, she knew all about _that_. She banished an unbidden memory of her own about Zarkon, and instead focused on what transpired between Lotor and Allura for the time being. Perhaps the extra time spent would be worth something to be used in the future…

Allura meanwhile brushed aside the implication—and unfortunate sting of a hint of truth—in Lotor's words, and looked away for a moment to gather her thoughts before she spoke again. "Lotor, that's not why I'm here," she protested. "I'm here because I want to help you." She swallowed as her heart began to pound. The LAD had made it clear—there was only one viable way to save Lotor, and although the prospect of marrying him for any reason was terrifying in so many ways—the simple truth was that she would, she _could_ not simply sit in a castle far away or even in a bleak courtyard as witness when the man who put himself at risk to save her from certain death met his while it was in her power to stop it. She just prayed that she had ironed out the details well enough with the LAD to cover her bases, protect her, her loved ones, and Arus' interests, and that her friends would understand. It was not a matter of love or what she felt; it was a matter of right and wrong…

A glimmer of hope filled the prince of Doom's features along with the simple elation of being with her as he heard her words. "Help me? How?"

_Purely political… to help him_, she reinforced to herself inwardly. Not because of the look on his face… or that touch of real feeling and deeply buried honor somewhere in his twisted soul….

"I—I," she faltered as the words froze in her throat.

Her own life was at stake, at least in as far as living it as she knew it went, not to mention her planet. Everything she had fought so hard to protect and rebuild. She was no longer the naïve girl she was over four years ago when she had first met the Voltron Force and they had brought the mighty robot back to being the glorious defender he was that day. She knew that one mis-worded clause in the contract or one real betrayal from Lotor could do immeasurable harm to everything she cared about, but she believed, she had to believe, that if Lotor loved her as he said he did, he would not betray _her_. Besides, he had plenty to lose himself if he did not honor his word, and she had some leverage. She was not trusting enough to go into it without that.

But her friends were also counting on her. And Keith. _Oh, Keith…_ She cared so much for him as well, and remembered how loyal he was to her, how protective and caring he was, how honorable, and how he had held and smiled at her so many times in a way that made her heart dance with delight.

_But then there's Lotor…_ The way he looked at her with such desire upon his handsome and exotic features, the feeling he stirred in her in those close quarters, and the way a part of her whispered that he was a prince like all princesses are destined to be with.

Why did her heart have to pound like that when she thought about Lotor?

"Allura?" Lotor prodded. Patience was a virtue the prince of Doom would never learn, even if he was distracted by the subtle tremble of her lips and the anxious but riveted look in her eyes as they regarded one another.

"There is a way I can have your life spared, Lotor. I want to do it only because I can't live with knowing I sent you to your death for saving me, that's all," she emphasized, although the words came out a tad too stressed. "It's called Code 630; Section B and it says—"

Lotor's own heart raced as he realized that Allura must be referring to the regulation Merla spoke of during her visit, the one that allowed royalty to reclaim their family members to their planet. "It says you can free me if we're family," he concluded, beaming. "If you marry me."

"Yes." Her tone was shaky under the weight of Lotor's intense and unashamedly ecstatic look. Lotor's very soul soared upon hearing her confirm her intent, while Haggar's disguised eyes went wide in shock.

_So she intends to marry him, _the old witch thought, _now there's an unexpected turn of fortune!_ She immediately began to rethink her plan. Perhaps she would wait until the ceremony took place before she rescued Lotor. She certainly could not deny her prince the chance to secure that which he so insanely pursued, in fact, he would probably be furious with her if she did stop it even if it _was_ to save his life.

"It's a clause that lets a royal or governing body from a planet in good standing in the Alliance reclaim a tried and sentenced member of their family to their world as long as they're sequestered there for the duration of their sentence," Allura explained. "In your case, that would be life. You would have to stay on Arus forever."

"Forever at your side with you as Arus' queen and me its king?" He smiled at the fantasy, and at the knowledge that as soon as he was out of the prison and on Arus no Galaxy Alliance force could possibly keep him from doing as he pleased with access to his own resources from Doom again.

Her heart pounded so heavily she was sure it would burst out of her chest. "But it's not going to be like you think."

"As long as I have my freedom and I have you, we can worry about that later." He leaned as close to the glass as his binds would allow. "When can we do it?"

"The LAD can officiate it right here. A marriage ceremony performed by one of these units is legally binding under all Galaxy Alliance laws." She glanced at the LAD, which approached and placed a printout into her hands. "The marriage license is here and you'll have to fill it in and sign it. But before that, I want you to sign this." She slid a few sheets of paper and a pen, courtesy of the LAD, through the slot.

"What is it?" Lotor asked as he picked it up and began to scan it.

"A contract," Allura informed him in a serious tone. "I know a marriage between us under Arus' laws, which the Galaxy Alliance recognizes, grants you the title of Prince Consort of Arus until we're crowned queen and king. It gives you certain rights and privileges to the planet. I also know that it will forge a tie to your planet, Doom, and by corollary Zarkon's empire."

Lotor nodded. "Yes. Assuming my father chooses to recognize the marriage, your planet would join the empire, and you would have the respective title on my world as my bride—and stand to inherit Father's empire with me when he passes."

"A political move like that may compromise Arus' position in the Galaxy Alliance, but the LAD assured me they can't kick Arus out as long as we don't perpetrate, abet, or condone hostile acts toward Alliance planets. That will give me the leverage to free you legally. In return, I expect you—and your father—to honor the terms in that contract."

"You have my word as a prince that I will honor what I agree to, Allura. I can't speak for my father, but I can and will act against him if he betrays you." Lotor meant what he said. For what Allura was about to give him, it was little enough of a concession to agree to her terms provided they were not outrageous. As far as Zarkon went, it was a given that Lotor would not stand for anything from his father that would threaten his position with Allura. He had gone through too much and waited too long to obtain her to let the old man ruin it once she was finally his. "What are your conditions?"

"They're listed there, but in short, you are not to abuse, terrorize, endanger, or enslave any of the people of Arus ever again. I want you to treat my people—_our_ people if we wed—just as I would. You and Zarkon are to cease all attacks on Arus and grant all of its people the rights and protection from Drule-run worlds given to any Drule Empire citizens. Furthermore, all Arusian-born slaves that you and Zarkon have taken in the past are to be freed and returned home if they wish."

Lotor considered the request, read the text, and found it reasonable enough. If Arus joined Doom's empire peacefully and willingly through a marriage to him, the courtesy of citizenship for its people was to be expected, and there would be no further reason to attack it. Additionally, if they had resources there to protect, it only made sense that they would defend it as they would their own territory. Zarkon might grumble about freeing the slaves, but Lotor knew his father well enough to know that he would be satisfied enough to finally have Arus after years of fighting to acquire it that he would probably concede. "Consider it done. It may take time to locate all the Arusians on Doom and associated worlds, but I'll see to it that it happens."

"Also, my friends, especially the rest of the Voltron Force, are not to be attacked, persecuted, or harmed in any way."

The prince double-checked the wording of the clause and let out a nod. "You have my word that we will not initiate any harm against them."

"Voltron and its lions will remain Arus' sole property. You and Zarkon are not to use them to attack other worlds nor are you to alter or dismantle them in any way. And to make sure of that, I'm retaining sole custody of the keys."

That Lotor was not pleased with, as part of the prize in securing Arus was gaining control of Voltron. He supposed he could live with that, however, especially considering there could be ways around it later. As far as he knew, the blue lion was destroyed anyhow, and the most important thing was that Voltron would never get in Doom's way again, and that much was assured with her request at least. "Very well, although you understand if they're used against our people in acts of aggression or to interfere in Drule Empire operations, there will be retaliation."

"They won't be. You have my word on that," Allura assured him.

"Is there anything else?"

"Only one other thing." She looked at him earnestly. "If you betray me, Lotor, if you hurt me or worse, I want you to know that not only will I never forgive you, I'll see to it that the lions are turned over to someone who will use them in keeping with the spirit my father intended. The same goes if anything should happen to me."

_My, she is covering her bases,_ Haggar thought as she watched the scene unfold, although she was pleased with the turn of events. Lotor's unfortunate circumstance was shaping up to be the best thing that had happened for their world in years. The prince securing Arus for them and being rid of Voltron for good was sure to curry a lot of political favor for Doom, and as a personal bonus it was going to make it much harder for Merla to sink her claws in to Zarkon's empire any deeper than she already had. In Haggar's opinion, that was best perk of all.

Lotor reached through the small opening and squeezed the lovely princess' hand. "I would never harm you, Allura, and I will kill anyone that tries." Withdrawing his hand and straightening he looked her dead in the eye. "I will agree to what you ask. In return," he searched her face carefully, "I'll ask a few things of you. I have no contract drawn for you to sign, but I know you to be if nothing else a woman of honor and that you will do as you say."

From where she stood, Haggar found herself growing impatient again, and she found herself thinking cynical thoughts at the young would-be couple. What frightened her was that her jaded musings were worded just as she might imagine Cossack having the bad taste to speak them aloud—those being that Lotor was sure spewing a lot of smarmy bullshit to get laid, that Allura was a sucker for falling for it, and that things would go a lot faster if Lotor simply said yes without all the pomp and fluff.

Allura's insides quivered at Lotor's touch. His hands were warm and strong, and the intense look in his eyes was impossible to tear her gaze from, but she felt a measure of fear that he too had conditions for the proposed arrangement. She logically knew that he would; even though he was hardly in a position to make demands, it was Lotor's nature to expect others to cater to him. Even though he claimed to love her, she knew better than to think she would be exempt from that. "What do you ask?"

"That if I do all the things you ask of me, that you stay loyal to me and your world to my empire and the Drule hierarchy as a whole. That Arus stays out of affairs that have no bearing on them, and that your people accept their acquisition gracefully. As you have asked that we not attack your world, I ask that your world play their role as citizens by treating ours with respect. Our sentries and soldiers—who will be there to protect our interests, you understand—will be under orders not to attack but will be permitted to retaliate should they be attacked."

"That's fair enough," Allura conceded. "Your people will be allowed peacefully on our world. I assume that means you'll allow Arusians free travel through your empire's territory?"

"Yes," Lotor agreed. "But more importantly, I ask one other thing of you."

"What's that?"

He massaged her slender fingers in his powerful ones and looked at her with unrepentant desire. "You open your heart and give me the chance to love you as I want to more than anything."

_Oh brother,_ Haggar thought from where she stood. She was definitely glad she had not opted to disguise Cossack and bring him along for the ride; he would certainly have lost it at that line.

"I can't believe she would do this, after all that scumbag's done to our worlds… No wonder our ancestors cut ties with those inbred Arusian idiots," Haggar heard Draex mutter from beside her. The Polluxian sentry had an expression of unmitigated disgust upon his features and his hand lingering upon the trigger of his weapon.

Allura meanwhile tried to pull herself out of the intense magnetism between her and the prince of Doom. A political marriage to save his life was so easy to justify, but to love him… Her thoughts raced. How could she ever truly love Lotor? All of the things he had done, and undoubtedly would do or at least try to do, the selfish kind of man he was first and foremost? Perhaps he was capable of love, but was it the same kind of love she dreamt of, the kind of love that she could find in a purer soul like Keith's?

_Keith means so much to me too,_ Allura's heart cried, although she knew in her heart that a romance with him was also riddled with issues and might never work out either. He was a commoner and she was royalty, and a marriage to him would never be readily accepted—if he even offered it. Unlike the man on the other side of the prison glass, Keith was not a presumptuous man and would stand aside in the name of duty, doing what he had to do rather than what his heart necessarily urged him, not unlike she was doing with Lotor. Lotor, who was a prince and who she could marry, but who she was not sure whether or not she truly loved.

_Could I love Lotor?_ She felt something when she looked at him, and could not deny that there was an attraction when they were together. Although she felt nothing but disgust when he was being cruel, in moments that he had shown tenderness and a spark of goodness, her heart genuinely wanted to embrace it and give Lotor the chance that he so urgently asked her for. Was she a fool for believing that Lotor could possibly ever be a man that she wanted to love?

Her voice was shaky as she answered. "I can't love a cruel and manipulative man," she told Lotor with a distressed look on her features. "If you don't lie to me, don't deceive me or betray me… then I can give you that chance," she said finally. "If you destroy that trust, any marriage we have will be in name only."

Lotor took that as a resounding yes and nodded eagerly, dismissing her conditions from his thoughts. At that moment he truly intended not to ever do those things anyhow, after all they would only jeopardize his chances at having what he wanted most of all—her and her love and devotion. "You can trust me, Allura, I promise. I will love you and cherish the life we'll have together—side by side, watching our children grow…"

The mention of children served to remind her of the permanence of what she was committing herself to. "I'll hold you to your word," her gentle voice warned with surprising authority and a note of wariness.

Lotor only nodded. "Of course." He signed the contract as agreed and handed it back to her, and then filled out the marriage license after she handed it to him next. When that was done he glanced at the LAD somewhat impatiently. "Can it be done now?"

_I hope so,_ Haggar thought with a fair bit of impatience of her own, while Draex muttered some profanity quietly under his breath.

Allura took a deep breath and stood. "Yes," she said decisively, before she could stop and second-guess the decision. She handed the paperwork to the LAD and gestured to the guards. "Unlock the barrier so we can stand together for the ceremony, please."

Haggar stepped forward silently while Draex only glared at the princess. "I'm only doing this because it's my job and I have to abide by regulations," he seethed contemptuously. "Freeing this monster after everything he's done…"

"No one asked your opinion, worm," Lotor snarled furiously.

Allura brushed off the insult. "I don't expect everyone in the Alliance to understand. I certainly didn't understand them when they decided to execute the man who saved my life."

"And annihilated so many others," he growled back as he unlocked the door. He stepped back and glared. "All done, your _highness_."

The LAD indicated for Allura to stand with Lotor while it pulled the marriage license back into its metal body so it could add its information to the Galaxy Alliance memory banks and create the official certificate once the ceremony was complete. When everyone was standing where they were supposed to, the LAD began the proceedings.

"As a Legal Advisory Droid unit of the Galaxy Alliance, I am fully sanctioned by law to join the individuals gathered before me in lawful marriage. Before you are joined in matrimony, I am obligated to remind you of the serious and binding nature of your contract. Do you fully understand the terms of your marriage agreement between your respective worlds, and the special conditions therein regarding your status in the governing hierarchy of those respective entities?"

"I understand," Allura said.

"Yes, I understand," Lotor also said.

"Princess Allura of the royal line of planet Arus, do you know of any reason that you should not be lawfully wed to Lotor, crown prince of Doom, first son of King Zarkon and the deceased Queen Altora of royal house Dar'skel'Ayr of the Ninth Kingdom of the Drule Empire?"

"I do not."

"Do you come here of your own free will and agree to accept the aforementioned man as your husband and enter into the binding agreement of marriage with him, and grant him all due title and privileges contained therein, until either the event of his or your death or a lawfully sanctioned divorce agreed to by both parties?"

Allura took a steadying breath. That was it, her last chance to reconsider before she would plunge headlong into something that would change her life forever with no turning back. Her heart raced and time seemingly froze for that moment before she answered, her decision already made. It seemed almost surreal to her when she heard herself say, "I do."

Those two words spoken by Allura swelled Lotor with unimaginable elation, as the realization that his long sought after Arusian treasure was his, really and truly and finally all _his_, sank in.

The LAD then impassively addressed Lotor. "Lotor, crown prince of Doom, first son of King Zarkon and the deceased Queen Altora of royal house Dar'skel'Ayr of the Ninth Kingdom of the Drule Empire, do you know of any reason that you should not be lawfully wed to Princess Allura of the royal line of planet Arus?"

"No. There is none. None at all," he said in a firm, smug tone that denied all challenge as he beheld his bride. A marriage in the Galaxy Garrison prison was hardly what he had fantasized about, but reality was far better than any fantasy, and it could always be recreated to his specifications later.

"Do you come here of your own free will and agree to accept the aforementioned woman as your wife and enter into the binding agreement of marriage with her, and grant her all due title and privileges contained therein, until either the event of her or your death or a lawfully sanctioned divorce agreed to by both parties?"

A pleased, superior, and utterly victorious grin spread across his face, one that startled Allura with its unashamed honesty, infuriated the guard in witness, and that made Haggar want to cackle with delight at the sheer irony that Allura would find out moments after it was too late that she married Lotor to save him only to learn it was completely unnecessary. Gathering her reserves in preparation for the cast of a teleportation spell for three bodies, she readied herself for the opportune moment...

"I do," Lotor stated dramatically, and took Allura's hands in his handcuffed ones to pull her close for the matrimonial victory kiss.

The LAD registered the mutual agreement of the parties and proceeded to the officiating step. "Princess Allura and Prince Lotor, in light of your mutual agreement to enter into matrimony and be bound to one another legally in marriage, I now declare you to be wife and husband. You may now exchange tokens of your vows or share a celebratory kiss."

Without hesitation Lotor clasped Allura's hands tightly and pulled her toward him for that kiss, and as their lips joined Haggar let out a loud cackle. As she snatched the copy of the marriage certificate hot off the LAD's internal printer, her illusion melted into her true form, freeing up that bit of magic and concentration for what would be a taxing teleportation spell, and shocking everyone in the room except the robotic LAD. "Beautiful ceremony, touching kiss, my deepest congratulations to the happy couple and I look forward to the bouquet toss later," she greeted them with a wry smile, using her own voice once again, "but I'm afraid we can't stay."

Lotor's eyes went wide in utter astonishment. "Haggar!" he exclaimed. "You came to—"

"Haggar!" was all the stunned Allura managed to gasp out.

"What the fuck!" the guard Draex shouted, and drew his gun to fire at the witch.

He never got a shot off, however, before a brilliant magenta wave of magic burst forth from Haggar's staff and temporarily blinded him, sending him reeling back to shield his eyes as it enveloped her, Lotor, and Allura. By the time the guard got his bearings and raised his gun to fire, all three of them were gone.

"I recommend sounding an alarm for the security breach," the LAD stated neutrally while Draex stared dumbstruck at the empty space.


	4. Part Four

Up on the cloaked Doom battleship, Cossack was jolted out of a light snooze, complete with feet up on the console, by the sound of a buzzer. "Three unidentified bodies on deck two, Commander Cossack," one of the robots reported in an urgent tone.

"Three?" he exclaimed with surprise as he scrambled to his feet. "What the—?" Deck two was right behind the bridge, and he had only expected Haggar to bring back Lotor, not guests. He raced to the sliding door to investigate and saw Haggar slumped over on the floor gasping for breath in utter exhaustion, a chained and handcuffed Prince Lotor in a Galaxy Alliance prison uniform, and to his shock, Princess Allura. "Woah," he said with wide eyes, and looked over the trio awaiting an explanation.

"Get us out of orbit and back to Doom now," Haggar rasped weakly to the commander. "They saw me leave and they'll pursue."

Immediately Cossack whirled around and shouted back through the door. "You heard her, rust-buckets! Turn on all thrusters and get us out of here, pronto!"

"Yes Commander Cossack," came a unanimous mechanical reply, and a moment later the ship blasted off into the stars bound for Doom.

"Welcome back, Sire, we've missed you," Cossack then said, and bowed to his liege with a wide smile. He did not know what had happened in the base, but if Princess Allura was with them and not struggling or fighting, then he figured it had to be good. He leaned over to help the fallen witch up and the four of them made their way back into the bridge proper. "You okay, Haggar? You look like a robeast's leftovers. Well, you kinda look that way a lot of the time, but you look worse than usual."

The old witch groaned and leaned on the tactless commander's strong bulk. "I told you that teleportation takes a lot out of me, and I didn't expect to transport three bodies." Her voice was barely a whisper.

"Oh yeah, you did say that blipping was a bitch come to think of it," he said with a nod, and then glanced at Allura, who only stood there in silence, watching him with a wary eye. "So, uh, is this a social call or should we have some of the tin-heads in there chain her up or something?" he asked of the prince and witch.

Allura's eyes widened anxiously and she stepped backward, but Lotor straightened in front of her. "No," he said sternly. "You will do nothing of the sort to Allura. She is here of her own free will, isn't she?"

"Commander Cossack, we're being trailed and fired upon by two Alliance ships."

Cossack sighed. Just when he was starting to get a handle on what was going on it figured that they would get attacked. "Then shoot back or something! Drop one of those robeasts Haggar stashed on board on 'em if you need to. Our first priority is getting home. They won't follow us deep into Drule Empire territory." He paused. "Not unless they're really dumb anyway."

"Yes Commander."

His prediction was right; with some return fire and the deployment of a robeast Haggar had brought along for just such an emergency the two ships were soon far more concerned with fighting that off than the escaping Doom ship. As it had turned out, they had made it out of range of Galaxy Garrison's headquarters by the time the news of Lotor's escape, marriage, and subsequent abduction of Princess Allura by the old witch got through the communication channels of the fortress and by then it made more sense for them to try to track the ship than pursue it. Instead they dispatched ships stationed nearest the Doom battleship's path, but luck was on the Doomites' side. There were only two of them and they were no match for the class of battleship that the rescue party had brought. It was fortunate for the pursuers that the battleship was more concerned with flight than a fight; they stood a better chance against the robeast than the firepower of that ship.

After realizing that she could barely walk, Cossack took pity on the exhausted Haggar and picked her up like a sack of potatoes to carry her over to the command chair. "So what happened?" he asked as he flopped her like so much dead weight onto the chair to rest.

_I can't decide if I should thank that buffoon or smack him,_ Haggar thought irritably as she shifted to a more comfortable position in the cushy chair, her backside sore from the rough way Cossack had set her down.

The commander then pulled a blanket from under the console and draped it over the witch. Mildly touched by Cossack's concern, she felt herself leaning more toward expressing the former than the latter, especially when Coba, who had stayed behind with Cossack while she was incognito in the complex, jumped into her lap purring.

"Take my chair and get you some beauty sleep, Haggar. You sure need it!" he then quipped jovially, and patted her on the head.

She took it back. She was definitely going to smack him when she had the energy for it.

Cossack meanwhile awaited Lotor's explanation, and the prince held out his still-bound hands. "Free me of these binds and I'll explain everything."

With a nod Cossack picked up a blaster and fired carefully at point blank range to break the chains that confined his liege, and then sent a robot to get him an energy blade to cut off the wrist and ankle cuffs with and something better to wear than an alliance prison uniform. "Finally," Lotor grumbled, and stretched his freed limbs. The first thing he did was turn to Allura, who narrowed her eyes at him.

"This isn't what I agreed to, Lotor," she informed him with clear anger in her tone.

"I had no idea about any of this myself," he replied.

Allura frowned, but she believed him. Lotor had seemed just as surprised as she was that one of his prison guards turned out to be Haggar in disguise.

"He's telling the truth, Princess," the old witch spoke up from the command chair. "As far as Lotor knew, you were his only chance at escaping his fate. Zarkon forbade us to attack the alliance directly or to act aggressively to secure your release."

"He what?" Lotor growled. That explained why there had been no action until then, no news of any attacks or even retaliations in his honor, until that point.

"Yeah, he has to pay lip service to Commander Hazar and the others kissing his ass over in the First Kingdom. They're doing some peace talks or something with the Galaxy Alliance so the word was spread to the rulers of the kingdoms to not start any incidents, or some bullshit like that," Cossack added with a shrug.

"How convenient for Father to follow the rules now." Lotor was not sure how he felt about the confirmation that his father truly planned to let him die without so much as an avenging retaliation strike. _Perhaps he only planned to do that much if they actually killed me…_

"Well what you just pulled is certainly an incident," Allura pointed out, her voice breaking into Lotor's thoughts when she turned to face him. "I said you were to leave with me under a legal release to have sanctuary on Arus. This is not what I agreed to when I married you!" She looked over at the monitor that showed them heading farther and farther away from Galaxy Garrison and Arus and frowned.

Cossack's jaw dropped. "Married? You two got married, Sire?"

"Yes," Haggar confirmed. "There's a lot of that going around lately."

"You're telling me," Cossack said with a sardonic snort.

From her seat the old witch then held up the certificate printed by the LAD. "Well I am sorry to disrupt your plans for a happy little life on Arus, Princess, but you had to know that Prince Lotor could never live such a life when you agreed to it. Besides, I'm sure the two of you will spend plenty of time there anyway now that you're married and it's a done deal."

"We had a contract, Lotor," Allura protested, trying to ignore the overt condescending tone of the witch. "You said you would honor your word! I trusted you!"

Lotor finished cutting the shackle off of his left arm with the energy blade that the robot had given him and put a hand on her shoulder reassuringly. "And I won't dishonor it. I'll still insist that your people are treated as you said and go along with what you specified as far as Voltron and the lions go when we return to Doom. Arus will be annexed into the empire in accordance with your wishes."

"But I don't want to be on Doom; I want to be on Arus! That's my home!"

"And you'll be allowed to be there whenever you wish once the details are ironed out," Lotor assured her. "But now that I'm a free man, you can hardly expect me to honor the Alliance's meaningless laws. I'm not _their_ prisoner anymore, my dear. My promises to you on what transpires between our planets are the only ones I'm bound to keep." The arrogant tone in his voice softened and he addressed her with unashamed affection. "With you at my side there is nothing we can't have together, Allura. Think of the opportunities before us!"

"Wow," Cossack remarked as he listened to the exchange between the two of them, taking in the magnitude of what had just happened. He then smiled at the two of them, especially Lotor. He knew how badly Lotor had wanted Allura, and he was glad to see him finally get her, especially after Lotor had nearly gotten himself killed for her. With Allura and Arus secured as their conversation implied and Voltron out of the picture once and for all, he realized that most likely the long Arus war was finally over, and that was cause for celebration. "Congratulations, Sire!"

He then looked at Allura. "And you too, Princess!" He bowed to her with a flourish. "Let me be the first to welcome the crown prince's new bride to planet Doom. Fleet Commander Cossack the Terrible at your service!" He straightened again. "Hope there's no hard feelings over all those attacks and invasions and that chaining you up thing I mentioned before. It was nothing personal. Now that we're all on the same side, I'm sure we can all be friends. I'm really a pretty nice guy when you get to know me." Though Cossack was not exactly thrilled at the concept of buddying up to any alliance type, it was true that he held no personal grudge against the princess any more so than he did any other enemy that had crossed him only in battle, and as long as she did not continue her habit of preaching smarm at him he figured he would not have too much trouble getting used to her. If nothing else, he could warm up to her as a queen more easily than Zarkon's simply because she had never stuffed him in a cosmotron and laughed about it.

It was when Cossack bowed to Allura that Lotor noticed the titanium bracer engraved with a Doom nobility family crest upon his arm—a family crest that was not of the one he had been born into, Aldar'ach, but another of Doom's noble houses. "Cossack," Lotor said with a surprised look of his own, "what's that? Did you get married?" The prince's voice was incredulous.

Flashing him a sheepish smile, Cossack nodded slightly. "Uh, yeah. A lot happened while you were away…"

A wry smile tugged at the edge of Lotor's mouth. "But you once told me you'd never get married. That you'd run headlong into the arena to take on robeasts hand-to-hand first."

"If you'd been set up with some of those nobility chicks my folks tried to push on me, tell me you wouldn't do the same thing, Sire." He shook his head. "Besides, you've never tried arguing with my mother. Like ramming into a stone wall without your helmet, I tell you."

"That's Tonorm'oith's crest," Lotor noted and raised a brow, "but you're a first son, so if you married into another house that means you had to marry above your station…"

"Yeah," Cossack said with a nod. "Lady Kuryaki." He struck a dramatic pose. "Not only happily hitched, but I'm also a high seat now!"

"The Ancient Ones save Doom's nobility," Haggar muttered with a shake of her head, while Lotor burst out laughing.

"What's so funny?" Allura asked.

"Lady Kuryaki, that is funny," the prince gasped between peals of laughter.

Cossack did not find it nearly as amusing. "Why is that everyone's reaction? She's not _that _much older than me!"

"Allura, I'm sure you remember Commander Yurak?" Lotor queried the puzzled princess.

"How could I forget?" she replied. The aforementioned commander had led countless attacks against Arus before he eventually met his end as a robeast under Voltron's blazing sword.

"Lady Kuryaki is," Lotor snickered again, "his mother."

"Cossack is the sort of man that needs a mommy to care for him, you see," Haggar cackled snidely from her seat.

"Blow it out your crystal ball, wart-face," Cossack snapped back at the old witch. "At least unlike some women older than me here that I can mention, my wife is attractive."

Allura took in the exchange between her new husband's rescuers with odd curiosity, unsure of what was appropriate to say or do. The propriety lessons of her youth certainly never covered her current situation. Lotor noticed her shell-shocked look and pulled her close to him. "With all that's happened, you must be overwhelmed, Allura," he said with a note of concern in his still quite smug tone. "We'll sort everything out when we get back to Doom." He smoothed his hand over the hair at the top of her forehead. "After we break the news to my father, we'll retire to my chambers and rest, spend time together," his smile broadened, "make our plans."

Cossack turned back toward the prince. "Speaking of breaking news, Sire, there are some other things going on back home you might want to know."

Still holding the quiet but acquiescent Allura close to him, Lotor eyed his fleet commander with renewed seriousness. "Such as?"

"You know how Haggar said that there's a lot of the marriage thing going around lately?"

Lotor nodded.

"She wasn't talking about me."

The prince looked from Cossack to Haggar, and a stab of dread pierced his otherwise pleasant mood. "Who?" He suddenly remembered Merla's smug declaration that she could not marry him because she had already found her "Prince Charming." _But Merla couldn't have married anyone on Doom that would be of any importance to me unless…_

"Your father also got hitched," Cossack informed him. "To Merla."

"What?" Lotor's voice came out in almost a roar. He was not sure if it was outrage, insult, anger, dread, or a mixture of all four upon hearing the news that his father had taken a new bride, a young one at that, and one with history with him. Whatever it was, he most certainly did not like it, for a number of reasons, and his hand balled into a fist.

Cossack nodded, making a clearly sympathetic and displeased face as he did so. "Yeah, it took us by surprise too. She was bad enough as queen of the Seventh Kingdom and just visiting ours."

"But she couldn't!" Allura spoke out suddenly. "She wouldn't! She turned good! She was there when we were on the asteroid, with you… she was angry at _you_ for betraying us and not changing like she thought you had!" she said, her voice rising as she looked at Lotor. "She wouldn't go back to Zarkon, not when she's been in talks with the Galaxy Alliance. She…"

"She lied," Cossack pointed out bluntly. "It's not like it's the first time."

"She wouldn't," Allura protested, desperate to believe that she had not been fooled by both parties on that day.

"Maybe she did believe that goodness and light nonsense she went on about at the time, but regardless, she's changed her mind," Haggar interjected from the chair.

"Who knows what the hell she was thinking? All I know is she's Zarkon's queen and we all gotta bow to her." Cossack's tone was more than a little bitter.

"Bow to Merla," Lotor said in a low tone, "we'll see about that." He then looked at Allura and felt a rush of renewed smugness despite the news about Merla. _Nice girls don't go for my type indeed,_ he thought snidely to the remark that the pink-haired queen had once made to him. Placing an arm around the princess' shoulders, Lotor looked at the monitor that showed their course for home and smiled. "Well," he said, straightening to his full height and regal bearing, "it seems that we're in for a very memorable homecoming, aren't we?"

From his side Allura also watched the monitor in pensive silence. _By Arus,_ her thoughts overwhelmed her as she pondered what awaited her not only on Doom but also far beyond, _what have I done?_

* * *

The green, red, and yellow lions had nearly arrived at the Galaxy Garrison complex when an urgent message from the Castle of Lions came in. "Voltron Force, come in! This is the Castle of Lions with an emergency! Over," Coran's distinguished voice, full of panic, came over the airwaves.

"What is it Coran?" Keith asked with alarm.

"Is Zarkon attacking?" Hunk guessed.

"Princess Allura has been abducted," Coran informed them gravely.

"Abducted?" Keith exclaimed.

"I thought she was at the Galaxy Garrison complex," Lance said, a worried note creeping into his voice.

"She was. From what I was told by our contact at headquarters, she was visiting Prince Lotor and—"

Hunk slammed his hand on the panel. "Lotor!"

Pidge's brow furrowed. "But Lotor's a prisoner. Did he escape?"

"How'd he manage that? Security there's tighter than Nanny squished into Pidge's uniform," a puzzled Lance remarked.

A dark look crossed Coran's features. "Haggar the witch. She disguised herself and somehow slipped past their security and teleported him and Princess Allura out with their magic. They did a scan for the ship they presumably escaped on, but it was far out of range by the time they detected it. They already deployed two crafts stationed in the area, but it evaded them."

Keith's eyes narrowed as he straightened determinedly in his seat. "So Zarkon wasn't going to leave Lotor to hang after all. And they took the chance to take Allura too."

"So much for Galaxy Garrison being a safe haven," Lance grumbled. "Makes you feel real good about security."

"I say we go straight to Doom right now and get her back before they hurt her!" Hunk said, already preparing to adjust his coordinates before Keith gave the official word.

"Me too, but wait a sec," Lance said suddenly. "What about the black lion? Did they take that too?"

"No, it's still at Galaxy Garrison," Coran answered.

"Maybe we ought to stop and get it so we have all the lions," Pidge suggested. "Doom's a rough place."

Keith shook his head. "Sorry Pidge, I know it's cramped in here with the two of us and I'd prefer to be in the black lion myself, but there's no time. Hunk's right, Lotor is dangerous. Besides," he frowned, "I don't have the key to it. Allura took it with her when she took the black lion."

"Then it looks like we're on our own," said Hunk. "You want us to gun it, Keith?"

"Fast as we can—to Doom," the Voltron Force leader answered.

Coran nodded somberly on the other side of the view screen. "Good luck, Voltron Force, and please bring her back safely. All of Arus is counting on you."

* * *

After passing through the dangerous energy fields that surrounded the dark planet and penetrating the ominous thunderclouds that seemingly always filled its atmosphere the Doom battleship that carried the escaped Lotor, his new bride, and the two that had taken it out to rescue the prince made its landing in the bay. Allura fought back her nervousness as Lotor took her arm and led her out of the ship, and she shivered as she took her first steps as Lotor's bride through Castle Doom, a chill that came more from its aura than its actual temperature, which was rather comfortable.

Some robots were gathered around the ship, and Cossack waved to them unceremoniously. "Check it in and refuel it, tin-heads," he called to them, and fell in step beside Haggar, who was on the left side of Lotor.

A royal guardsman, a member of a small squadron of soldiers separate from the royal fleet that reported directly to Zarkon, approached them. "Prince Lotor!" he gasped upon recognizing the prince of Doom, and bowed, with a curious eye on the Arusian princess at his side. "You've returned! And brought a prisoner?"

"I've brought you your future queen," Lotor informed him arrogantly before demanding, "Where is my father?"

"He is in the throne room, Sire. Actually that's why I'm here. I was told to send Commander Cossack and Haggar to him when they returned."

Allura felt another stab of anxiety when she realized that the meeting with Zarkon, the man who killed her father, who enslaved her people and ravaged Arus, and who was now her father-in-law, was imminent. Haggar, Cossack, and Lotor meanwhile all exchanged looks. "Well then," Lotor said as his blue lips parted into a sly smile and he linked his arm through Allura's, "Let's not keep him waiting… now that we're home."

**The End**


End file.
